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“Did you drug me?”
He was not happy with my question. In fact, he looked quite insulted. The frown was the deepest yet.
“I do not drug women,” he bit out.
“Men?”
His nostrils flared.
I wondered if he knew how handsome he was. It wasn’t Adrián’s polished kind of handsome. No, this was his own style. The tight crown of his hair. The confidence of pulling off that closely shaved beard, the scar running through it like punctuation. And those lips, full and very kissable. His skin was deep and dark, and in the morning light it almost looked polished, like wood that had been handled. He sat on the edge of the bed with his shoulder blocking half the window. Even his silence couldn’t dampen his presence. I just knew Auntie would approve. Then she would ask who his people were.
“Where are you from?” I whispered.
Just like that, he closed down. The shutter dropped. He backed away and got off the bed.
“We need to leave.”
“What?” I said, sitting up.
“New York.”
I scrambled off the bed, shaking my head. The carpet scraped my sore soles.
“No. I can’t leave my family and friends. I—”
I couldn’t find the words. To leave everyone?
“They will kill you and anyone you were ever acquainted with,” he said calmly, packing his suitcase. “We need to be careful about which route we take out of Texas. They own some motels and truck stops, or at the very least have informants.”
He folded each shirt with the precision of a man who ironed creases for fun. Beside them lay a neat coil of jute. I looked away very fast.
“But no one saw you. Us.”
“Didn’t they?”
Leandra.
She thought he had kidnapped me. Well, technically, she wasn’t wrong.
“Is this the network that procured all of us?”
“A low-level gang, backed by the cartel.”
I sank back onto the bed, watching him calmly refold clothes he had taken from the drawers and place them in his case.
The cartel. An actual criminal syndicate.
“Will my family be safe?”
His hands paused, and his eyes rose to meet mine.
“As long as you’re not with them.”
That hurt more than I expected it to. I pressed my lips together.
“What about my family in Kenya? I could go there. My parents and brother are there.”
He looked away. A muscle flexed in his jaw.
